Huawei’s P20 and P20 Pro pack a serious punch

After much teasing, countless leaks and efforts to troll competitors, the new Huawei flagship series has been made official. The Chinese brand’s P20 and P20 Pro were announced today at a launch event in Paris. And all we can say is wooow, pun intended.

Huawei P20 and P20 Pro Specs:

Cameras The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro are equipped with a front-facing 24MP camera. The smaller P20 comes with a Leica main dual 20MP + 16MP monochrome and RGB setup whereas the P20 Pro rocks a triple Leica 40MP + 20MP + 8MP configuration. Both phones come with OIS, the new AIS for long exposure pictures and 960fps super slow-motion video capabilities.

Performance Both devices are powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 970 octa-core processor clocked at up to 2.36GHz. The P20 will feature 4GB RAM while the P20 Pro will come with 6GB RAM. Both devices run Android 8.1 and EMUI 8.0.

Battery The P20 equips a 3,400mAh battery while the larger P20 Pro will come with a 4000mAh one.

Mobile security Fingerprint scanner unlock found on the front underside of the devices or face unlock.

Ingress protection rating The P20 is IP53 water- and dust-protected whereas the P20 Pro is IP67 water- and dust-resistant.

Storage The P20 and P20 Pro offer microSD support up to 256GB if you wish to forego the dual-SIM support on top of the base 128GB offering.

Pricing and availability The P20 will be priced at €650 (about Dh2,956) and the P20 Pro will cost €900 available starting April. Local pricing and availability is yet to be confirmed.

Charging Huawei’s Supercharging tech (58 per cent in 30 minutes) is built into both devices but there’s no support for wireless charging.

Colors Midnight blue, pink gold, graphite black and twilight.

Huawei P20 and P20 Pro: Cameras

This year, the company’s flagship campaign has revolved around the cameras on the P20 and P20 Pro. And rightly so. The camera specs on the P20 Pro are quite drool-worthy but performance and samples shown so far have been incredible.

The P20 Pro colour variants and camera layouts. The P20 comes in the same colour variants too

The smaller P20 comes with a standard 20MP + 16MP monochrome and RGB camera with an f/1.6 aperture, which is completely overshadowed by the P20 Pro’s 40MP + 20MP + 8MP setup. The 40MP is the primary sensor whereas the 8MP serves as a telephoto lens providing 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid zoom and 10x digital zoom. The third 20MP sensor is the same monochrome one found on the P20 for better low-light performance and depth.

The phone’s new reflective twilight colour stands out from any angle

This breaks industry standard for a smartphone camera and brings in a much larger sensor compared to the competition and an ISO compensation of more than 100,000, which is unheard of on smartphones. The P20 comes with a DxO mark rating of 102 and the P20 Pro comes with a DxO mark rating of 109, both surpassing competitors. As for the selfie camera, the 24MP sensor is able to 3D track your face to produce the best selfie. In addition, you will get features such as a selfie portrait mode with lighting effects to change the appearance of your portrait once the picture has been captured.

Pricing and availability

Both the phones are set to be available to consumers starting in April. The Huawei P20 will be priced at €650 (about Dh2,956) whereas the P20 Pro will come in at €900. We will keep you updated on local pricing and availability.